Is magic real?

We all have our own way of looking or perceiving things. But the human mind loves mystery. An enigma that cannot be explained easily. Something that confuses us and makes us wonder how or what makes such and such a thing work. And if the answer is not acceptable in its obvious state, than we want to delve deeper. Certain events and phenomenon leave us spellbound. But the greatest mystery that we humans have yet to understand is the human brain. So complex and varied are its abilities that even after centuries of study, even experts say that though the visible parts of the brain are somewhat understood, the capabilities of the conscious and subconscious mind are still an unknown realm. What powers does the human mind hold in controlling our lives and of the energies around us, some of which we can see and some we cannot? Now that is the thin line between magic and fantasy. Sounds confusing? Of course it does, it’s meant to. Isn’t that want magic is about? Okay before you send your minds into a swirl, let us try to look at some of the factors that might be a little easy to understand. We do know that there are so many examples of individuals who can control certain objects just by concentration. We also have quite a few stories of how some people are ‘gifted’ to sense events that took place without them being present there. These are people we see or hear about all the time. But what about people who call themselves magicians and make things happen or make stuff vanish? Are these just clever tricks of the trade or is there something else to it? We have seen people walk on burning coals for the love of a saint, yogis laying down on a bed of nails and a man at the circus walk fearlessly into the lion’s cage. What are all these people doing to achieve these feats? Well in the first instance the so-called ‘power of love’ is proved correct. The love, respect and passion for the saint will elevate the minds of his followers so much that they will hardly feel the hot burning coals under their feet, the yogi will use his power of meditation and raise it so high that he will not let his mind feel the painful nails under his body and in the last example, the lion trainer’s power of subduing the lion will make the lion feel that he or she is not afraid of the lion and that in the battle of wits between the lion and its trainer, the trainer makes the lion obey him by repeatedly subduing him to obey his commands. But there is also another aspect to ‘magic’. Researcher and author Dan Green is of the opinion that there are energy forces around us in Nature that the human mind can control to some extent by learning to “go with the flow” of the forces. He writes in his article that people who perform magic, as we know it, learn how to do it like following the recipe for baking a cake. Certain ingredients or let’s say certain energies can be harnessed at certain times and when one learns how to bend the forces of time and space with the mind, in unison with the energy field around our planet, one can make or create an illusion which we call magic. As an example, he writes about the experience of Carl Tidy, a graphic designer in 2005. He was asked to design a poster for some churches. With this thought in mind, he stepped out for a breath of fresh air. As he looked up at the sky, he saw a formation of the clouds in the form of Jesus on the Cross. Did Carl’s mind unknowingly hook up with the mind of the living planet to unintentionally form the cloud? Another incident is of a friend of the author, Dan Green, who read about the February 16th incident when thousands of dolphins had gathered off the coast of San Diego. With this report in her mind she stepped out of her home in Mansfield to see a cloud exactly in the shape of a dolphin! In psychology there is even a term for this phenomenon though not yet completely understood. It is called Pareidolia. Now let’s come to the air around us. Though we cannot see the wind, it still blows about us. But what we do not know is that the wind has certain kinds of negative and positive particles that may affect our moods in certain ways! Okay now this is seriously baffling, I agree. But here is the magical part. At certain strengths and measurements the winds have known to be the reason for increasing the possibility of heart attacks, fights and even our mood swings! No wonder the term, “The winds of change” comes to mind. According to Dan Green, “My own experiences tell me that consciousness is everywhere, in every tree, stone, river and all else. Mother Earth can speak with us, but I doubt very much that it can be bullied by us.” Now we come to the dark side of magic. Yes magic in which people state that they take help from the supernatural or spiritual world in order to harm people or manipulate their powers into what we call “black magic”. Now as we all know that we are all connected to the universe and its energies. If an individual uses these in the wrong way, no good can come of it. Remember what you send forward comes back. The proof of this is that the world is round. Getting lost in any kind of darkness, whether natural or physical, is bad. So, yes there is magic all around us. If only our minds can tap into the unseen capabilities that we have within us. As they say you can do anything “once you put your mind to it”.